FAA Scolds Boeing Over Door Plug Decompression Incident

The agency says the emergency situation "should have never happened."

Thursday, January 11, 2024 at 03:21 PM ET

Verified

The FAA is investigating an incident in which an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 lost a door plug in flight. [Courtesy: NTSB]

Key Takeaways:

The FAA has launched a formal investigation into Boeing after an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 lost a door plug mid-flight on January 5, prompting a nationwide grounding of the aircraft model.
The investigation will determine if Boeing failed to ensure its completed products conformed to approved designs and were in a safe condition, especially given additional reported discrepancies on other 737-9 airplanes.
The FAA emphasizes that public safety, not speed, will dictate the timeline for returning the aircraft to service, holding Boeing accountable for its manufacturing practices to meet high safety standards.

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“This incident should have never happened, and it cannot happen again.”

Those words come from a statement from the FAA, which announced Thursday that it has formally notified Boeing that it is conducting “an investigation to determine if [the company] failed to ensure completed products conformed to its approved design and were in a condition for safe operation in compliance with FAA regulations.”